Rolex Air-King
The Air-King series was first developed by Rolex founder, Hans Wilsdorf, as a tribute to the many courageous pilots. This iconic timepiece has an impressive history, but also a bright future.
As mentioned, the new Air-King epitomizes Rolex's privileged ties with the world of aviation during its golden age in the 1930s. It was a period when spectacular progress in aircraft performance constantly ex-panded humanity's capacity to conquer the skies. Now, the Rolex Air-King pays tribute to the pioneers of flight, harmoniously combining tradition with the latest achievements.
... Now, the Rolex Air-King pays tribute to the pioneers of flight, harmoniously combining tradition with the latest achievements.”
In terms of aesthetic, the new Air-King, comes with a 40 mm case in 904L steel, features a distinctive black dial with a combination of large 3, 6 and 9 numerals marking the hours and a prominent minute scale for navigational time readings. The dial bears the name Air-King in the same lettering that was designed specially for the model in the 1950s and details in two different colors: yellow and greenThe Air-King’s Oyster case is a paragon of robustness. Fitted with the Twinlock double waterproofness system, the winding crown screws down securely against the case. The crystal is made of virtually scratch-proof sapphire. The waterproof Oyster case (100 meters) is also fitted with a shield to protect against magnetic fields, a feature of pilots’ watches of the past.
The Air-King is equipped with calibre 3131, entirely developed and manufactured by Rolex. Its architecture, manufacturing quality and innovative features make it singularly precise and reliable. Insensitive to magnetic fields, the Parachrom hairspring offers great stability in the face of temperature variations and remains up to 10 times more precise than a traditional hairspring in case of shocks. Calibre 3131 is also equipped with a self-winding module featuring a Perpetual rotor and offers a power reserve of approximately 48 hours.
The Air-King is fitted on a Oyster bracelet in 904L steel with a folding Oysterclasp - a perfect alchemy of form and function, aesthetics and technology, designed to be both robust and comfortable. This bracelet features the ingenious Rolex-patented Easylink rapid extension system that allows the wearer to easily increase the bracelet length by approximately 5 mm, for additional comfort.
The Air-King is covered by the unique Superlative Chronometer certification. This exclusive designation testifies that the watch has successfully undergone a series of tests conducted by Rolex in its own laboratories according to its own criteria, which exceed watchmaking norms and standards. The precision of a Rolex Superlative Chronometer after casing is of the order of –2/+2 seconds per day, or more than twice that required of an official chronometer.
